Archive 11.2007

Age Auction For Charity

Next week we are going to be putting up a great big batch of Age of Empires shwag for auction on eBay, and the money will be going to the Child's Play Charity which helps kids in children's hospitals. The charity was started by the folks at Penny Arcade who encouraged gamers to give and make a positive impact. We're going to pay the shipping costs and we'll ship this stuff to anywhere in the world so we won't be leaving any of our fans out of this! Here is the gigantic list of stuff that will be up for auction, with every piece being signed by members of the development team. A great gift for any Ager:

Age of EmpiresAge of Empires: Rise of Rome Expansion Age of Empires II: Gold EditionThe Making of Age of Empires IIAge of Empires IIIAge of Empires III: Collector’s EditionAge of Empires III: The WarChiefs ExpansionThe Making of Age of Empires IIIAge of Empires: The Age of Kings (Nintendo DS)Age of Mythology: Gold EditionAge of Mythology Collector’s EditionAge of Mythology: SoundtrackThe Art of Empires: Collection of art from Age of Empires bookAge of Empires III: Board gameCollection of shirts from various Age gamesAge hatsAll in a swank trunk

11/30/07

Smackdown Tournaments

Some of you ancient Age players will remember the weekly Smackdown tournaments that MFO ran for Age II way back when. These events often featured some interesting new settings to spice things up, settings that would be revealed shortly before the tournament took place.

Well the gang at Age Sanctuary is bringing Smackdowns back with the first event taking place this Saturday! Some fun settings, 1v1, sign up and get out there and have some fun!

ESO Server Maintenance 11/21

The ESO servers are going to be taken offline for regularly scheduled maintenance on 11/21 at 1:00pm GMT (7:00am CST). Server down time is expected to be approximately 15 minutes.

Thank you for your patience as we strive to improve your online experience.

11/20/07

Image Contest: 1 Week Left

Just a reminder for those of you who are planning to enter our 10th Anniversary Image Contest that there is just one week left before the deadline of November 23rd for your entry to be submitted. Prizes include a full set of Age of Empires III titles signed by members of the development team and the Age of Empires III board game. Best of luck!

Drop Trickery

The exploit known as "drop tricking", or purposefully disrupting your own internet connection in order to try and gain a win without actually winning the game, is considered cheating and will result in your ESO account being permanently banned. Occasionally, players lose connection legimately with each other, but if you feel that the person you were playing has intentionally dropped connection with you, please e-mail us at age3.abuse@ensemblestudios.com with their ESO name and we will investigate.

11/15/07

Top 10 Best Selling PC Games

Age of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties has entered the top 10 best selling PC games chart in the number two position according to the NPD numbers! Here is the list of PC games sales for the week ending Oct 27:

Keeping Your ESO Account Secure

Here are some basic tips for making sure that no one else can log in or steal your ESO account:

Never share your account information with anyone or use your ESO password on websites or forums.

Ensemble Studios employees will not ask for your password. If you are logged on to ESO and someone is asking for your account password or account information, please immediately take a screenshot of the chat messages by pressing the "Print Screen" button, opening MS paint (or other image program) and paste the screenshot. Save it and attach it to an e-mail to age3.abuse@ensemblestudios.com.

Make sure that your password and secret question/answer are not easy for someone to guess. Check out this article from Microsoft on making strong passwords.

GameReplays 1v1 Dynasties Tournament

It's on! GameReplays.org is hosting an Asian Dynasties 1v1 tournament, open to 128 players. There is $250 in prize money up for grabs, so get practicing and make sure that you sign-up for the event before the deadline of November 17th. Best of luck!

More Dynasties Reviews

The reviews for Age of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties are still coming in! Here is a new set of articles for those of you who are still making up your minds on whether or not to pick up the latest expansion pack for the game:

ESO Server Maintenance 11/06

The ESO servers are going to be taken offline for regularly scheduled maintenance on 11/06 at 1:00pm GMT (7:00am CST). Server down time is expected to be approximately 2 hours.

Thank you for your patience as we strive to improve your online experience.

11/05/07

WCG '07 Summary

Mr.Milo has put together a summary of his trip to this year's World Cyber Games finals in Seattle, complete with some of his photographs. You can read his write-up here in our forum. Our thanks to Milo for sharing his experiences with us all.

If you'd like to see Age of Empires III included in next year's WCG, head over to their website and vote in the poll to select the games for 2008.